Adolescent Development and Participation Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. UNICEF has been mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to promote the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to increase opportunities for them to reach their full potential. UNICEF is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to ensure that these rights become enduring ethical principles and international standards of conduct towards children.

Context

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. UNICEF in Armenia provides technical support to national partners both in development and humanitarian settings with a view towards: (a) expanding the choice of possible learning pathways, including through innovative methods and technologies, and (b) bringing in new topics, such as climate change adaptation, community resilience, environmental sustainability, STEAM, mental health and psychosocial support, cybersecurity – online safety,, girls education, that can potentially be the focus of adolescents’ non-formal learning experiences Intensive partnership with local, national, international (including UN) partners and private organizations is key in ensuring synchronized and targeted response to the needs of adolescents in general, adolescents and young people from difficult backgrounds, with disabilities, displaced and others. In addition to the general needs, since the end of September 2023, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians, including 30,000 children have sought refuge in Armenia, leaving behind their homes, schools, and everything familiar to them. Children, adolescents, and young people bear the heaviest toll of humanitarian crises. Access to services including psychosocial support, education, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, and child protection is critical to ensuring children can get the support they need and overcome the distress caused by displacement. This comes on top of pre-existing situations of vulnerability among children and their families, including difficulty in accessing quality and comprehensive basic social services and poverty. UNICEF has been operating in the country in different modalities and in several sectors (health and nutrition, education, child protection, and social protection, disaster risk reduction) since the early 90s and has continued to do so during and after the recent crisis. Typically, adolescence is a period of life that is often characterized by change and uncertainty and this moment of intense crisis can be particularly detrimental in this age group. Therefore, there is need to intensify some of the UNICEF interventions focused on adolescent engagement. Considering the expanded and continuously evolving needs and vulnerabilities among adolescents, and young people, both from the displaced population and host communities, UNICEF is seeking the services of a National UN Volunteer Specialist to support the ADAP team and contribute to the implementation of Adolescent programming both in development and humanitarian settings.

Task description

Under the supervision and guidance of the supervisor, the ADAP National UN Volunteer Specialist supports the ADAP section by carrying out a range of programme support and technical functions to help develop, implement and monitor their response programming, ensuring effective and timely delivery that is consistent with UNICEF rules and regulations. The ADAP National UN Volunteer Specialist works in close collaboration with a range of staff in the country office, external partners and agency counterparts in support of programme design, delivery and monitoring. S/He provides regular feedback on the status of projects through monitoring milestones and advises on improvements to keep activities on track. Broad summary of key functions/accountabilities: • Facilitating the development of programme cooperation agreements (PCAs), programme documents (PDs) by providing information and drafting selected sections of it. • As needed, contribute to ensuring the timely and accurate recording and administrative processing of government, NGO’s and partners’ proposals and requests for partnerships. • Conducting emergency and development programme monitoring for UNICEF supported programmes and interventions. • Helping conduct regular programme visits - of partner’s projects to assess their financial record-keeping, expenditure controls and reporting systems. • Monitoring and tracking the efficient distribution of supplies that are required for effective programme delivery. • Drafting communication and information materials for CO ADAP programme advocacy to promote awareness • Participating in relevant meetings/events on programming to collaborate with partners/colleagues • Working closely with youth NGOs, youth groups to identify possible areas of partnership • Supporting the programme section in researching, compiling and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data and information from a variety of sources on subject matters relevant to the work of the section to facilitate programme delivery as well as preparation of reports, working papers and presentations.